If you have had a chance to read my last post, Part 1 Ireland, you know that our Next BIG Girl’s trip will be in June to Ireland/Northern Ireland for 5 nights, London for 2 nights, the rest of England for 2 nights on our way to Scotland, Scotland for 6 nights, and then 1 last night in Dublin before we fly home to Chicago!!! That’s a total of 17 days/16 nights!!! There will be 6 of us girls in Ireland; myself, my daughter Morgan, my mother Joan, my sister Melissa, my sister Amy, and my cousin Sarah. Then my best friend Jessica will be flying over to meet us in London and for the remainder of the trip there will be 7 of us (possibly 8).
Day 7– Off to LONDON!!!
Today will start off the day bright and early with a flight over to London from Dublin Airport. We are still looking at options for flights. You would be amazed at how cheap it is to fly from one country to another over in Europe! We are looking at an early morning flight on Aer Lingus is that gets us to Heathrow at 9:05am, which will be right about the same time my friend Jessica is flying in from the US to continue with us for the rest of the trip. There are dozens of direct flights to London that range from $17-$67 plus the price of luggage. That’s right, $17!!!! For those of you can live out of a backpack for weeks at a time, this is a steal!!!! RyanAir, Aer Lingus, and British Airways all run direct flights to London from Dublin, some of them directly to the London City Airport in the middle of the city. Baggage rates on these short-hall flights ranges from $25-$40 per bag and most of them require your carry-on bag to be less than 19″ with a small personal item. So, those additional costs will start to add up.
Once we land in London and collect our luggage we are booking an airport transfer to our downtown hotel, The Citadines Trafalgar Square. There will be 7 of us, so we are getting a group rate for our airport transfer thru www.Viator.com for only about $17 a person. You could also take the Tube with only one transfer for about £5 ($6.20 as of now). But… with the amount of luggage we all have, and this will be our first time in London, we thought would spring for the scheduled transfer.
I am SOOOOOO excited about The Citadines Trafalgar Square Hotel we have booked on www.booking.com. It is only a block and a half north of the River Thames and only a 5 min walk to Charring Cross Underground Tube Station, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery. Now our two nights in London may be some of our most expensive nights, but because I book this hotel 8 months before the trip I was able to find a great deal!! We are paying less than $90/person/night for a 2-bedroom apartment and a studio apartment for the 7 of us!!! Plus, booking.com has free cancellation up to 24 hours before your dates and because you pay at the time of your stay, my rate has decreased by $130 already. The US dollar is doing SO well right now and you get the most current exchange rate!!! Now, if the dollar crashes, this may cause our rate to increase.
Once we arrive at our hotel and store our luggage (I already emailed the hotel to make sure they have a secure luggage hold) we are heading straight to the London Eye (£22 for £27 for two rides, once during the day and one at night!) for a birds-eye view of the city!!!! How are we getting there you ask? By buying a 48 hour pass on a Hop-on, Hop-off Double decker bus!!! There at several different bus companies offering this, but Big Bus London Hop-on, Hop-off Bus has a 48hour pass for only £38 ($47) only 8£ more than the 24 hour pass. Now the bus only runs it’s 2 dedicated routes from 8:20am-18:50pm, so anything we want to still do after that will require an Oyster Card for easy tube rides!
Lets’ talk Oyster Cards!!! The London Tube system is world famous! With the help of new apps like “Tube Map” you too can easily navigate the extensive system in record time. An Oyster card is a preloaded card for Tube fares that you can purchase online or once you arrive in London. A visitor Oyster Card cost £3 and is refundable if you turn it in at the station at the end of your stay. It can be loaded with £15 on up or you can buy a 1, 3,7, or 10 days unlimited pass. The great thing about the Oyster Pass is the daily price cap. The cap depends on the “zone” of the city you are in. For instance, in the center and most touristy part of the city the price cap is £9.50. Once you have reached that cap, the rest of your tube rides for the rest of the day are FREE!!
We plan to spend the rest of our first day in London sight-seeing and finding an awesome old pub for a pint and dinner!!!!
Day 8– Day 2 in London
Considering we only have a meager 48 hours in London and a list of Must-See places on out list that’s a mile long, there are quite a few places we aren’t going to have time to see. But…..there no reason we can’t plan another trip!! We would like to visit the Tower or London (£25), watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, shop at Harrod’s, and visit Westminster Abbey if there’s time. We have all agreed that our trip if more about having fun and experiences that rushing around trying to fit it all in.
We definitely want to hit some of the amazing London Markets!!!! My top pick is Borough Market. I worried that I might be sucked in and never leave though!!
We are still considering buying the 2-day London Pass (www.londonpass.com), but because we are so short on time there are only 1-2 placed included on the pass other than the Hop-on, Hop-off Bus that we are planning to visit. It may cost us more than just paying the admissions and bus passes separately.
Day 9– Let’s head to the English countryside!!!!
Stay tuned for Part 3!!!!!
